Photobucket's Updated Terms of Service
Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 12:12 pm
Looks like I'm not the first, but today I got an email from Photobucket saying that they had updated their terms of service. As a result, they no longer allow free "third-party hosting" (that is, hosting photos on their server for display in this forum). I understand their decision: third-party hosting costs them money and doesn't bring in revenue; it's a lose-lose scenario for them.
When I joined this site, some years back, I was encouraged specifically to load my photos to Photobucket. They service was free, easy to use links for third party hosting were provided and it was relatively simple to use. Since then, I've been a pretty active member here, working through some challenging issues--both mine and others--in 1300+ posts. Soon, the photos that make those posts worthwhile will disappear, as they have already for hitman and others (http://www.vintagethunderbirdclub.net/p ... 25&t=13636). Those who search older posts to answer common questions will soon be telling us, "I found a thread with the answers, but the photos were missing."
These days, we're directing people to postimage.org. Some use imgur, google and other hosting sites with varying degrees of success. It's confusing for new users, and I suspect a great many Thunderbird owners leave the site in frustration over this issue. It's also a fair bet that these new hosts will be no more reliable or stable than the old; our club's memory is at the mercy of services we don't control.
A little further down this forum, there's a suggestion from 2008 asking that we directly host photos, just as most other forums do. At the time, Terri said it was just too expensive. Well, it's been almost 10 years. The cost of storage has come down and most large web hosting providers have reasonably priced packages that allow for unlimited data storage and bandwidth. It's time we hosted our own pictures. Not only would it make the forums easier to use, it would ensure that our collective knowledge remains intact.
~Steve
When I joined this site, some years back, I was encouraged specifically to load my photos to Photobucket. They service was free, easy to use links for third party hosting were provided and it was relatively simple to use. Since then, I've been a pretty active member here, working through some challenging issues--both mine and others--in 1300+ posts. Soon, the photos that make those posts worthwhile will disappear, as they have already for hitman and others (http://www.vintagethunderbirdclub.net/p ... 25&t=13636). Those who search older posts to answer common questions will soon be telling us, "I found a thread with the answers, but the photos were missing."
These days, we're directing people to postimage.org. Some use imgur, google and other hosting sites with varying degrees of success. It's confusing for new users, and I suspect a great many Thunderbird owners leave the site in frustration over this issue. It's also a fair bet that these new hosts will be no more reliable or stable than the old; our club's memory is at the mercy of services we don't control.
A little further down this forum, there's a suggestion from 2008 asking that we directly host photos, just as most other forums do. At the time, Terri said it was just too expensive. Well, it's been almost 10 years. The cost of storage has come down and most large web hosting providers have reasonably priced packages that allow for unlimited data storage and bandwidth. It's time we hosted our own pictures. Not only would it make the forums easier to use, it would ensure that our collective knowledge remains intact.
~Steve